What’s Cooking – Chicken & Sweetcorn Soup

I believe I am not the only person in the world who exhibits a particular behaviour when entering a restaurant for a repeat experience. The vast majority of people evidently do exactly the same. On an earlier visit you have a dish from the menu and it turns out to be a smash hit in flavour town and you gastronomically fall in love. Henceforth for time eternal every time you visit that restaurant you end up ordering that dish again in the hope of capturing that moment of true love, sure you may look through the menu, even hum and ha but in the end you will opt for that hope, again.

One such dish for me is served at our local Chinese restaurant, it is their sweetcorn and chicken soup, it is divine, thick, creamy and full of flavour, simply put it is heavenly and thus an inevitable starter no matter whatever else I intend to order. So as I am one of those “foodies” that truly believes that whatever I taste I can make it better myself at home as anything cooked at home has those missing essential ingredients that are rarely if ever found at a restaurant, being passion and love.

So you can imagine how I was fired up the other night when flicking through my cookbooks the other night looking for inspiration when I came across a recipe for my favourite soup, to the kitchen!

Ingredients needed:

• 1 Chicken (with giblets if possible)
• 1 Tin of creamed sweetcorn
• 3 Fresh corn on the cobs
• Couple of onions, carrots and celery stalks
• 1 tsp of whole peppercorns
• Handful of chopped fresh parsley stalks (save leaves for latter)
• Couple of bay leaves
• Olive oil
• Chicken stock or water

Method:

Turn your oven on to 200C

Peel and wash your fresh corn on the cobs and then pat dry with some kitchen roll. Place on a baking tray and drizzle the olive oil over them. Give them a good rub all over to make sure the oil covers them full. Sprinkle some salt over them and pop into the oven for 20 minutes or until looking golden. Remove and allow cooling.

Whilst you corn is cooking wash and quarter you chicken and pop into a large pot. Roughly chop your carrots, onion and celery and throw them in the pot. Next our spices, so add the peppercorns, parsley and bay leaves. Finally add enough chicken stock or water to just submerge the contents of your pot and a good pinch of a nice salt crystal.

Bring to the boil and then gently simmer for an hour. Turn of the heat and leave to cool for half an hour. With some tongs gently extract the chicken form the pot and place into a bowl to drain a bit, the rest of the contents we need to sieve to remove the veggies and herbs we no longer require.

Remove the skin from the chicken and discard (unless you own a hound) and then remove all the meat and shred it into small strips and place back into the draining bowl.

With a sharp knife cut the corns from the cobs and place into a bowl.

Place the stock that is now free from any bits back into you large pot and bring back to the boil. Add one tin of creamed sweetcorn. Cook for 5 minutes and then add the bowl of chicken and any juices collected and carry on cooking for a couple more minutes. Finally add the bowl of roasted corn you have made earlier and season to taste.

Simmer for a couple of minutes and then serve and enjoy the subtle blend of flavours carried over your taste buds by a wonderfully rich chicken stock, bliss.

Now western food tastes would dictate that we should have something to go with this soup, now being a Chinese dish it is usually served on its own or as part of a larger meal. Myself I must admit to liking a nice fresh multigrain roll with lashings of butter as a partner or if you wanted to build on the corn theme of the dish some warm butter chunks of American corn bread works amazingly well! It’s like a ‘Merican and Far East Fusion thing, and it’s a marriage.

Have you ever found a bizarre fusion of different cultural foods?

Chocolate and Orange Drizzle Cake

Last Sunday yet again I was asked to bake a Lemon Drizzle Cake. Don’t get me wrong, this is a lovely cake but after two weeks of baking it every other day I’ve decided it was time for something new. I didn’t want to disappoint nor, for safety reasons stray too far from the requested type of cake, so I decided to bake a “off spin” drizzle cake, or in cook-speak take it to the next level. It was my first attempt and I really wasn’t sure how it would turn out but in the end I needn’t have worried as it was quite something if I may say so myself; a bit more moist and sweater than a lemon version but extremely tasty and satisfying.

I present to you the Chocolate and Orange Drizzle Cake.

Ingredients:

For the cake:

• 3 eggs
• 150g self-raising flour
• 150g caster sugar
• 150g unsalted butter, soften
• 1tsp baking powder
• Zest of one large orange
• 1tbs of fresh squeezed orange juice
• 2tbs chocolate shavings

For the orange drizzle:

• 50g granulated sugar
• Juice of one large juicy orange

The above ingredients will make a cake that fits perfectly in an 8” loaf tin.

Method:

Preheat the oven to 180C fan.

Grease and line your baking tin, or just grease it.

In a large bowl mix together all the dry ingredients being: flour, sugar, chocolate shavings and baking powder; add zest from one large orange, soften butter, eggs and fresh squeezed orange juice – mix all ingredients until smooth.

Pour into your earlier prepared loaf tin.

Bake in the pre-heated oven for 40-45min or until golden brown.

Remove from the oven and allow it to cool for a few minutes.

Prepare your drizzle by mixing the sugar with the orange juice. “Stab” your cake repeatedly with a toothpick and then slowly drizzle it with your mixture allowing it to soak in deep inside the cake.

Let it cool completely.

Cut, serve and enjoy!

Happy Baking!

Quick and Easy Lemon Drizzle Cake

Lately we seem to have become obsessed with a Lemon Drizzle Cake. In the last 2 weeks I have baked one seven times 🙂 It was proving very hard to “save” the cake until I could actually take some pictures, but a few days ago I succeeded, so here you go – my Lemon Drizzle Cake recipe.

Ingredients:

For the cake:

• 3 eggs
• 150g self-raising flour
• 150g caster sugar
• 150g unsalted butter
• 1tsp baking powder
• Zest of one lemon
• Icing sugar for decoration

For the lemon drizzle:

• 50g caster sugar
• Juice of one large lemon

The above ingredients will make a cake that fits perfectly in an 8” loaf tin.

Method:

Preheat the oven to 180C fan.

Grease and line your baking tin, or just grease it if you have problems with making a perfect lining like me 😉

In a large bowl mix together all the dry ingredients being: flour, sugar and baking powder.

Add the zest from one large lemon. Due to possible wax coating on the lemons nowadays remember to wash it well before grating the zest (I like to keep it in a bowl of hot / boiling water for a few minutes first).

Melt your butter a little, so it is nice and soft (20sec in pulses in a microwave should do the trick).

Add the butter and eggs to your mixing bowl and beat all the ingredients until smooth.

Pour into your earlier prepared loaf tin.

Bake in the pre-heated oven for 40-45min or until golden brown.

Remove from the oven and allow it to cool for a few minutes.

Mix lemon juice with sugar and prepare to drizzle.

I like to remove my cake from the tin before drizzling begins and place it on a cooling rack.

“Stabbing” the cake all over with a little toothpick will help your drizzle to soak deeper into the cake, but it is an optional extra.

Drizzle your cake and allow it to cool…

When totally cool, sprinkle the cake with a little bit of icing sugar, which will give it a nice even finish.

If you want a more crunchy drizzle, use granulated sugar and for even more crunch go with icing sugar.

If you decided to give this cake a try and it is not lemony enough for you, just add a bit of lemon juice inside the cake during the mixing process and it will boost the lemon flavour right up.

Happy Baking!

Parragon Book Buddy – Food Heroes “Use Your Noodle”

I don’t know about you but I love noodles. Now it isn’t my go to food when thinking about what shall we eat tonight as the option gets drowned out with other choices in my planning stage, but and it is a big but, when I do actually have them I really, really love them. So why does this dilemma exist there is a food I love but my thoughts do not offer it up as a solution to the daily what shall we eat conundrum. Well as it turns out it’s all about ideas regarding the different ways of preparing them, how do I know this you may wonder, I have a little helper in my corner 🙂 Parragon books sent me a “Use Your Noodle” cookbook and I am very grateful.

This cookbook is packed with yummy recipes from all over the world covering different types of noodles.

The cookbooks’ contents are split into four main chapters:

A Bird in the Hand – covering all your bird based noodles recipe

From the Farm – covering farm meats like pork or lamb

From the Sea – this part is packed with recipes requiring prawns, cod, tuna and all the other lovely types of fish

Veg Out – the last chapter is for all veggie lovers out there

After reading just a few pages, how easy they are and how amazing they look and taste noodles are on my mind.

In addition to lots of recipes, like all Love Food cookbooks I have had the pleasure to read, “Use Your Noodle” also contains a lot of useful hints and tips. My favourite is the “know your noodle” part.

In just two pages is an easy to understand explanation about many different types of noodles covering such wonders as:

Soba – mainly made from buckwheat flour and did you know the most popular noodles in Japan.

Ramen – this wheat flour noodle is generally treated as a comfort food and used in a variety of broth-based recipes.

Udon – generally thick and white, made with semi whole-wheat flour; they are light and very easy to digest.

Rice – they are made from rice flour and these are my favourite 🙂

Egg – made with wheat flour, water and eggs – they cook fast and are idea as all-purpose noodles.

As I said above the cookbook is packed with a great selection of recipes. As you would expect from Parragon books all the recipes have a clear indication of both preparation and cook times as well as how many people it will serve. Every recipe has a clear ingredients list and easy to follow cooking instructions and best of all you can see a full colour picture of the final dish so you know what you are aiming for.

I have a few favourite picks from the book.

Chicken Noodle Soup

Steak & Soba Noodle Salad

Udon Noodle Stir-Fry with Fish Cake & Ginger

Sichuan Noodles

So now when I am out shopping I am always on the hunt for new and exciting noodle options as I plan to get myself a nice selection of noodles to cook with.

Do you like noodles?

What’s your favourite noodle dish.

***
Food Heroes: Use Your Noodle
ISBN 978-1-4723-6451-7
Published by Parragon Books Ltd in 2014
Part of Love Food
Number of pages: 128
RRP: £6
Paperback; perfect bound

*I received this book for free from Parragon as a part of my Book Buddy pack.
**All pictures in this post are from “Use Your Noodle” cookbook.

What’s Cooking – 45 Minutes Roast Chicken

First, let me start with an apology – I hadn’t planned on sharing this recipe, hence the lack of more pictures, but as it came out so delicious, I really wanted to tell you all about it.

The recipe for a 45 minute Roast Chicken is loosely based on the “Roast Chicken” from “On the Table in 30 minutes – One Pot” by Paraggon books. I say loosely, as I got the main idea from the book but then to make it work for me I had to change both the ingredients and the method to get it done.

So, let’s start with the ingredients:

• 6 skinned chicken thighs
• 500g of baby potatoes
• 250g Brussels sprouts
• 2 large carrots
• 1 large pepper
• 2 onions
• 1 courgette
• 1 large clove of garlic
• 2tbsp of multigrain mustard
• 2tbsp of honey
• 1tbsp white wine vinegar
• 0,5tsp chilli pepper
• 100ml chicken stock
• 1tbsp dry oregano
• 2tbsp olive oil
• Salt and pepper to taste

Method:

Preheat your oven to 240C.

Wash and peel (if needed) your baby potatoes and cut them into halves.

Chop the veggies into your desired size – I tried to make the carrots the same size as my potatoes and everything else was chopped into thick slices.

De-skin your chicken.

Prepare 100ml of chicken stock (stock cube, fresh or best of all make your own); then add to it: mustard, honey, wine vinegar, chilli pepper and crushed garlic plus a little bit of salt and pepper.

Heat the oil in a large heavy pan (I used my go to cast iron one). Toss in the onions and potatoes and fry them for 2-3 minutes; then add the carrots and courgettes. After a further 2-3 minutes, add all the remaining veggies – in my case peppers and Brussels sprouts. Fry them all for an additional 2-3 minutes.

Remove the veggies from the pan and place in a casserole dish, which will be suitable to go to the oven and will hold all the veggies plus the chicken.

Reheat your frying pan with some additional olive oil and start on the chicken. Please your chicken in the pan, add a generous amount of salt and pepper and fry on one side until lightly browned. Turn them over and add your earlier prepared “sauce” plus sprinkle all over with your oregano. Fry for a minute or two, and then transfer the chicken and all the sauce into the casserole dish.

Place in the oven and allow it to cook for 30 minutes.

After this time you will have one amazing dinner ready to be served.

Just in case you are wondering how on earth I’ve managed to take a 30min recipe and turn it into a 45min one, I will explain… The original recipe calls for the whole dinner to be cooked in one pan (who would have thought it given the title of the book) and I simply do not own a cast iron pan to take this volume of food in one go, so I started to prepare it using two separate dishes, then decided that was a rubbish idea and just used my biggest pot I owned. Unfortunately as my decision was so late in the game I had not warmed my new pot up like I had with my two smaller pots. Therefore as my food was going from the frying pan to the cold casserole dish I needed to add some extra time to allow everything to heat up again, hence the longer cooking time. Anyway as it turned out I was saved and it worked perfectly… the chicken was falling off the bone and my veggies had still kept their shape and where just right.

Happy cooking!

What’s Cooking – Christmas Gingerbread Man Cookies

The Christmas season is in a full bloom so it is time to get some festive food ready. What can be more festive than some tasty little gingerbread cookies?

The recipe I want to share with you today is from The Christmas 3D Cookie Kit from Parragon. The kit contains 3D cookie cutters (so you can make your own 3D snowman and 3D Christmas tree) and a recipe book with a fantastic selection of Christmas cookies.

The recipe I’ve chosen was originally for a Mini Gingerbread House Cookies, but we thought that a gingerbread man shaped cookies will be a better choice 🙂

Ingredients:

125g butter

2tbp golden syrup

175g light muscovado sugar

300g self-rising flour

2tbsp ground ginger

1 large egg

Method:

Prepare 2 large baking sheets, ideally pre-lined with a baking paper.

Heat the oven to 160C.

Place the butter and the golden syrup in a pan and heat gently, stirring all the time until melted.

Remove the pan from the heat, add sugar and stir until dissolved.

Sift the flour and ginger into a large bowl and make a well in the middle ready for the wet ingredients.

Pour in the warm, wet ingredients and add the beaten egg into the mix.

Stir thoroughly to form a smooth dough.

Wrap it in a cling film and chill in the fridge for about 20 minutes.

Remove your dough from the fridge and prepare to roll it out; ideally you want your rolled dough to be about 5mm thick.

Cut desired shapes using a cookie cutter or an upside down glass if you want to make a classic round shape or even a knife if all else fails.

Transfer your cut cookies to your baking sheets.

Chill in the fridge for a further 10 minutes.

Bake in earlier preheated oven for about 12-15 minutes or until firm and lightly brown.

Remove from the oven and allow them to cool down.

Now the fun can begin…

It is time to decorate!

If you are good with decorating you can make your own royal icing (just mix 150g of icing sugar with 2tsp of white egg powder and 2 tbsp of cold water)… I am not a master decorator so we used shop bought icing pens to make this job easier 😉

Happy baking!

What’s Cooking – The Perfect Steak à la Marco Pierre White

I’ve already shared a steak sauce with you, so next in line must be the steak itself! For us any steak is a treat, so an aged fillet steak is only for days that will never be forgotten. They aren’t even close to being cheap so they have to be reserved for special occasions to add another layer to the wonder that is making that day special to us. Lately we haven’t actually had any special occasions to celebrate but Mark wouldn’t believe me that a Worcestershire Steak Sauce is so amazingly nice, so we made that the occasion so we could cook one so he could try it for himself.

We got some lovely fillet steaks from Donald Russell. We were lucky as a 160g steak if bought in packs of four were on special offer 🙂

If you going to push the boat out and have a steak then you might as well have the best cut and what can be better than a buttery-tender prime fillet beef steak?

(Oh my, I am drooling just thinking about the dinner we had).

So anyway, we had our steaks, all we needed now was a Knorr Stock Cube and a little bit of olive oil.

Following what Marco Pierre White told me to do; we seasoned our steaks with only the Knorr stock cube instead of adding any salt. Why? Let me tell you:

First of all it will coat and stick much better to the meat then just salt would.

Secondly, as all the meat is evenly covered it will enhance the flavour of the meat better and thus elevate it to the next level.

And third because he said so 😉 and despite the evidence I do occasionally do as I am told.

Once you have all the ingredients you need:

• Steaks
• A Knorr stock cube
• A dash of Olive oil

… it is time to cook.

Method:

Heat a large, heavy, thick-bottomed frying pan – we used our cast iron one as it is simply perfect for it. It must be “smoking” hot, so the surface of the meat caramelises.

In a small bowl crush the Knorr stock cube and mix it with a little bit of olive oil creating a paste. You can use whatever flavour you want – I guess beef would be ideal in this situation… however we used chicken…

Season your steaks with the paste. Make sure it is spread evenly on both sides of the meat. Don’t put it too thick. You want just a little flavour enhancement.

Put the steaks into the frying pan and fry for about 2 minutes on one side, then turn over and fry for 1 minute, then take the frying pan away from the heat still leaving the steak in the frying pan. Now watch your steak. Once you see the blood start to break the surface, your steak is ready – it will be a perfect medium-rare.

Add all other bits you are having with it and dig in!

Oh and don’t forget about the star of the show your Worcestershire Steak Sauce!

I did find a video recipe for both steak and a Worcestershire Steak Sauce. If you dislike onions and prefer peppercorns in your sauce have a look at this video; you might find it helpful.

House of Fraser – The Blogger’s Recipe Book and My Special Apple Pie Recipe

This is not just any cook book, oh no, this is a very special cook book… this is a cook book in which you can find on pages 16, 17, 18 and 19 my very own Special Apple Pie Recipe!

We have been published in a real cookbook; not just an e-book but an actual book that you can hold in your hands and physically turn the pages. I just love it!

As you can probably guess I am chuffed to bits over this.

The whole project started back in August. I received an email in which I was asked if I wanted to be published in a cook book. Hell yeah! Of course I wanted to have my recipe in a book. The big question was which recipe… in the end actually it wasn’t such a big question… from all the recipes we have covered I knew that my Mums Apple Pie was the one which deserved fame the most. For years it was a closely kept secret but once we “let cat out of the bag” there was nothing to hide anymore. The recipe was out there, so why not immortalize it in print in a lovely cook book from House of Fraser.

We re-wrote the recipe a little making it clearer and easier to follow. Then I had to bake one in order to shoot the “perfect” picture.

I think it worked.

The recipe reads well and the picture shows the pie in all its glory.

I feel very proud!

The whole book contains 14 recipes from UK bloggers; mostly cakes but who doesn’t love a good cake?

Just in case you had never heard about My Special Apple Pie Recipe before – here it is again – the new and upgraded version.

Enjoy!

Ingredients:

6 eggs – yolks with whites separated

250g of unsalted butter

350g of plain flour

250g of icing sugar

2 tea spoons of vanilla sugar

3 tea spoons of baking powder

1kg of apples

Cinnamon (to taste)

Method:

1. Pastry

Mix the flour, baking powder, vanilla sugar and butter (ideally all ingredients should be at room temperature)
After the pastry starts to form add the six egg yolks, one at the time. Mix everything together until you are able to form a ball. Cover with cling film and pop into the fridge to rest.

2. Apples

Peel and core all the apples, using a grater shred them into small pieces. Once ready, put the apple shavings into a sieve to help get rid of any excess juice.

3. Preparation for meringue

Take a flat baking form – a roasting tin can be used if needed – grease the bottom and sides with some butter.
Remove your pastry from the fridge and split into two parts (¼ and ¾) – put the ¼ sized part back into the fridge for now; take the ¾ part, gently roll flat and place at the bottom of your greased baking form. Once ready cover the base with the shredded apples (make sure that they are not dripping with juice or you will end up with a soggy base, if necessary give them a squeeze with your hands before adding to the base). Sprinkle some cinnamon over the top of the apples. Now you are ready for the meringue part…

4. Meringue

Put the six egg whites into a mixing bowl. Whisk or beat until firm. When soft peaks start to form begin to add the icing sugar slowly. Once all the sugar is added and you are able to form stiff peaks stop whisking and with a metal spoon place the mixture on top of your cinnamon apples.

5. Topping

Once you have meringue covering the top of your pie; take the final ¼ of leftover pastry; and again with a grater grate tiny pieces on top of the meringue.

Bake in the middle of a preheated oven at 220C, after 10 minutes reduce the temp to 180C and bake for a further 20 minutes Or until the meringue peaks have a nice light golden brown colour.

Once cooled, you can dust with a little bit of icing sugar to make it look even more amazing.

Have fun if you decide to bake it!

Weekly Photo Challenge: Achievement

“Only those who attempt the absurd can achieve the impossible.”
Albert Einstein

Me? I am going to be published in a cookbook!

My Apple Pie recipe will be in the real, printed cookbook, sold in book stores.

Happy times!

Challenge set by The Daily Post

***

Three Quick Lunches with Cherry Tree Farm

When it comes to food, we would all love to eat fresh, healthy, home cooked meals, but too many of us struggle to find the time for it. Home cooking from scratch doesn’t have to be time consuming. It also doesn’t have to be at a master chef level to be enjoyable. You can create a nice meal with virtually no skills and in a very short period of time. All you need is a spoonful of willingness, a smidgeon of time and a dash of imagination.

Cherry Tree Farm offered to send me a selection of their products, so I can come up with some quick and easy meal options using theirs 100% British, cooked and ready to eat meats. For this moment there is a choice of 7 lovely poultry products to pick from:

• American Fried Chicken
• Roast Chicken
• Roast Chicken Chunks
• Tikka Chicken Chunks
• Hickory Smoked Turkey
• Roast Turkey
• Turkey Ham

There are a lot of dishes ready cooked meats can be used for. Today, I would love to share with you my best three lunch options. They are all quick and extremely easy to prepare; and of course taste delicious.

The Humble Sandwich

Difficulty level: extremely easy

Skills required: none

Ready in: 2 minutes

Ingredients:

• 1 x good quality soft white roll
• 2 x slice of Cherry Tree Farm British Roast Turkey
• Real butter

Some might say that this sandwich is a boring option… me… I love a good sandwich. Just like with any dish, it is all about the ingredients. If you have fresh, good quality ingredients, you don’t really have to do a lot more to it… let the food speak for itself.

A simple meat sandwich made with a good quality roll or bread, spread with some real butter and of course a tasty slice of meat can be extremely satisfying. And the best part is… you do not need to have any cooking skills to make it. Even if you are not so handy with a sharp knife you can prepare it… just tear your roll apart… see, no knife skills needed.

Finger Food Platter

Difficulty level: easy

Skills required: chopping with a sharp knife

Ready in: 5 minutes

Ingredients:

• 1 pack Cherry Tree Farm Roast Chicken Chunks
• 25g cheese
• 1 tomato
• ¼ cucumber
• Slice of bread

As long as you can use the knife, you can make it. Preparation time will depend on your cutting / chopping speed but I would judge that five minutes would be more than enough time even for the most careful chopper out there.

Food platters can look lovely and are therefore very inviting. They are especially fun f you have some company joining you for lunch. Use toothpicks to move food over if you like clean hands…or feel free to dig in with your fingers… after all it is a finger food.

Chicken and Rice Salad

Difficulty level: easy

Skills required: chopping with a sharp knife, cooking rice

Ready in: 10 minutes

Ingredients:

• 1 pack Cherry Tree Farm British Roast Chicken
• 25g cheese
• 2 gherkins
• ½ tin of sweetcorn
• 50g cooked rice
• 2tbsp mayonnaise
• Salt and pepper to taste

Now, we have reached a “level 3” lunch recipe – cutting and cooking skills required. Actually, this isn’t necessary true. If you don’t know how to cook rice or want to save some time, cheat a little and use a packed, almost ready to eat rice, which you just microwave for 2-3 minutes.

Anyways, all you have to do in order to create this lovely light salad is to chop all the other ingredients, mix them well with a good spoonful of mayonnaise and flavour to taste.

I actually cut the cheese with a knife, but you might prefer the grated option. The main difference is in the taste – cheese cut into cubes will give you less but bigger chunks, meaning once you bite into it, you will taste mainly cheese; the grated option on the other hand will give you more cheese all over your salad making in general your salad taste slightly more cheesy 😉

If you have the time and are feeling brave – add some chopped boiled egg into it or a small tin of garden peas.

I like this type of salad mainly because it is rice based; it is perfect for packed lunches and keeping in the fridge for when you can’t be bothered to make anything, it will serve you well as self standing meal.

So, there you have it… my three quick and easy lunches.

Now, it is your turn… what’s your quick and easy favourite lunch idea?